To his Excellency Thomas Hutchinson Esqr Captain General and Governor in chief of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay May it please your Excellency The President & Fellows of Harvard College wait upon your Excellency to congratulate you on your Appointment to the first Chair of Government in this Province. It reflects an honor on the College, that one of its sons, after having sustained, with great Dignity and Reputation, a Variety of public Offices, is advanced by the King to this high station. Your Excellency's thorough Acquaintance with the Advantages of Literature; The affectionate Regard you have expressed for this Seat of Learning; and the important Services you have rendered it, afford us the pleasing Prospect that we shall find in your Excellency a Patron & a Friend, ever ready to protect the Rights and promote the Interests of a Society, founded by our Fathers on the most catholic Plan, & upon which the Welfare of the Community greatly depends. It shall be our constant Endeavor, that the Youth committed to our Care may be taught all due Submission to Government, as well as the Principles of Civil & Religious Liberty. We devoutly implore the great Governor of the Universe, to direct and succeed your Excellency's Administration; and make it honorable to yourself & happy to this People. To which his Excellency was pleased to return the following Answer, Gentlemen I return you my sincere and hearty thanks for your Address, which expresses so much Duty & Loyalty to the King, so much Kindness and Respect to me My Services for the College have fallen short of my Desire and Endeavors. This public Notice of them by the Corporation is very obliging. I am bound to embrace every Opportunity, & to improve every Advantage which my present Station may afford for the Encouragement of this eminent Seat of Learning, weh has been of such signal Use to the Province in Civil as well as religious regards. April 4th 1771. This Day his Excellency the Governor was pleased to visit the College in Compliance with the Invitation of the Corporation. His Excellency with his Honor the Lieutenant Governor, & the Honorable his Majesty's Council, in their Carriages, attended by the Sheriff' of the County of Suffolk, & a Detachment of the Troop of Guards set out from the Province House in Boston, in Procession, and were received at the County Line by the Sheriff 3 of the County of Middlesex, and the principal Gentlemen of the Town of Cambridge in their Carriages. At the Steps of Harvard Hall, his Excellency was received & congratulated by the President, Fellows Professors & Tutors in their Habits In the Philosophy Chamber he was met & welcomed by the Honorable & Reverend Overseers. The Chapel not being large enough to accommodate the Gentlemen who were present on this Occasion, & the Members of the Society; His Excellency, with the Lieutenant Governor, the Overseers, Corporation, Officers of the College, & the other Gentlemen, went in procession from Harvard Hall to the Meeting House, preceeded by the students of the College, Graduates & Undergraduates. The General Court being then sitting in the College, a Committee of the Corporation waited on the Honorable House of Representatives to ask their Attendance on the Exercises of the Day. Which Invitation they were pleased to accept off. The public Exercises began with a handsome Gratulatory Oration in Latin pronounced by William Wetmore A.B. To this his Excellency made an elegant Reply in the same Language, testifying his Affection to the Seminary in wch he had his Education, & his Regard to the Interests of Literature. Then followed an Anthem, composed set to Music & performed by some of the students The Words of the Anthem. We have heard with our Ears, O Lord, and our Fathers have told us of thy Might! Thy Wonders which thou didst of Old; how thou didst drive out the Heathen from among them! For they got not their Land by their own Sword; but it was thy right hand, thine Arm, & the Light of thy Countenance! O Praise the Lord forever & ever - How blessed are all they that fear the Lord & walk in his Ways, for thou shall eat the Labor of thine Hands. O well is thee, & happy shalt thou be. 1 Andrew Oliver. 2 Stephen Greenleaf. • David Phips. Of the Class of 1770. Lo! thus shall the Man be blessed that fears the Lord. For thus saith the Lord, from henceforth, behold all Nations shall call thee blessed; for thy Rulers shall be of thine own kindred; your NOBLES shall be of yourselves, & thy GOVERNOR shall proceed from the midst of thee. Awake! Awake! Put on thy Strength, O Zion, - break forth into Joy with Hallelujah! for the Lord hath redeemed his People. Blessing, & Glory, Salvation and Wisdom, Thanksgiving and Honor and Power & Might, be unto the Lord God Almighty, who sitteth on the Throne, and unto the Lamb forever & ever Amen Praise the Lord When the Exercises were over, the procession returned to the Hall, where a genteel Entertainment was provided for his Excellency, the Honorable & Reverend Overseers - the Honorable House of Representatives, & the other Gentlemen. The Whole was conducted with the greatest Decorum and Elegance.1 3 The second paper is a letter from Hutchinson to the Rev. Andrew Eliot, a member of the Corporation, written from London and dated May 26, 1775. It is to be noted that at this date the news of the Battle of Lexington had not yet reached England. Captain Derby, who had been sent off by the patriot party in all haste, arrived in Southampton on May 27 and in London on the following day. The news was suppressed by the Ministry for some days, but Governor Hutchinson must have known it promptly. A letter from Edward Gibbon to Edward Eliot, afterwards Baron Eliot, dated May 31, 1775, states that he has heard from Hutchinson the particulars brought by Captain Derby.* The volumes which Hutchinson says he is sending to the College Library cannot be identified with anything now existing in the Library, and it is altogether likely that they, as well as the objects intended for the Museum, never reached America. 1 College Book, vii. 216–220. Of the Class of 1737. The original is in Harvard College Papers, ii. no. 73. This letter is printed in the Magazine of American History (1883), ix. 375. Sir LONDON ST. JAMES'S STREET 26. May 1775. I have desired Col° Dalrymple1 to take with him two Folio and one Quarto Volumes, all which contain four different Translations of the Old Testament, and five of the New into the.Latin Tongue. I have desired him to deliver them to you, for the College Library, hoping they may be acceptable and useful. I have seen two or three other Translations which I believe I can obtain. I send likewise, for the Museum, a small box containing a Fish converted into Chalk, which I brought from under a Chalk Cliff in Sussex, and was perfect, but, by handling, the Tail is broke off. It is a Sole, a Fish well known here for its delicate taste. There is also part of another, which, being dug into the belly, discovers the grain of the Fish. To some persons they will be curious. In the same box, there are two small pieces of cloth, made by the Otahitee Indians from the Rind or inner Bark of a Tree, and a long string of braided hair, which they work into Ornaments for their Foreheads. Omiah,2 a Native now in England, gave them to me. I wish it may be in my power to evidence my attachment to the College, by something of greater value. I am Sir Your most obedient Revd Doctor Eliot. humble Servant THO HUTCHINSON Mr. CHARLES F. MASON exhibited three original documents: (1) a parchment dated 14 January, 1655-56, bearing seven grants of land from the town of Medfield to John Bowers signed by Henry Adams; (2) a petition to the General Court dated 19 December, 1664, of Richard Norcross concerning books that had been stolen from the Watertown school by Indians; and (3) a report dated 16 August, 1667, of the committee appointed to investigate the expenditures of the Treasurer of the County of Middlesex, signed by Thomas Danforth, Hugh Mason, and William Stitson. These follow. 1 Col. William Dalrymple. * On July 17, 1774, Omiah was presented to George III, who recommended his being inoculated; and on August 25, having recovered from the small-pox, he dined with the Royal Society. He was still in England in 1775. See the Gentleman's Magazine, xliv. 330, 388, 441, xlv. 167, 169. To John Bowers two Acres and three roods of upland as it lyeth abutting on Bridg street high way toward the north easte and on the waste land toward the northweste and the meadow south weste and the land of Nicolas Rocket toward the south easte Meadfield Granteth HEN ADAMES2 Agt To John Bowers three acres and one roode of upland as it lyeth abutting on the lands of nicolas rocket toward the south easte and on the waste lands on all parts else Meadfield Granteth HEN ADAMES Agt To John Bower ffower Acres & halfe of meadow land as it lyeth Be fore the end of stop river being Bounded with Charles River Boath toward the south & toward the easte according to the various runing of the river Coming near to a poynt boath toward the north easte and south weste with the waste land on the north weste Meadfield Granteth HENRY ADAMES Agt To John Bower Two Acres more or less of meadow Land Ling in the uper broad meadow Abutting Againste the highway Toward the south easte and on the waste land on all parts else. HENRY ADAMES Meadfield Granteth To John Bowers two Acres and halfe of meadow Land as it lyeth Abutting on Charles River toward the weste And Benjamin Alen toward 1 John Bowers came to Medfield with the Braintree and Weymouth people about 1652. His house lot was near the Great Bridge. His house was burned and he was killed by the Indians in their attack on Medfield February 21, 1675–76. See Tilden, History of Medfield, p. 320. • Henry Adams, son of Henry Adams of Braintree, came to Medfield, of which he was the first town clerk, with the Braintree and Weymouth people about 1652. He was killed by the Indians on February 21, 1675-76. Hannah Adams, the well-known writer, was descended in the fifth generation from Henry Adams of Medfield. For a sketch of him, see Tilden's History of Medfield, p. 281. |